Search - Johann Sebastian Bach :: Bach: Cello Suites

Architectural Clarity Produces Passion

Wizkid | USA | 07/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I listened to many performances of the Bach Cello Suites before deciding that, all in all, this one by Heinrich Schiff is more or less the best modern recording. Those other performances include Ma, Rostropovich, and Starker. (Casals is in another class altogether--like Schnabel's Beethoven--the best performance but in historical recording.) I have not heard Fournier or Kirshbaum, who I understand are excellent. I will not detail the limitations of the other recordings, but instead speak to the qualities of the Schiff performance.

Schiff plays almost every movement faster than others (including even Rostropovich, who sometimes races mechanically, each note with exactly the same weight as every other), with the result that long melodic lines are heard as wholes rather than isolated chunks. This leads to large-scale harmonic relationships being heard and felt. The movements consequently emerge as intellectual and emotional entities with individual character. No other player produced that experience so consistently or clearly for me. At the same time, micro adjustments in dynamics and rhythm make phrases in the melodies emerge with beautiful clarity, simplicity, and authority. I felt as though Schiff were playing the way Bach might have played. Fast movements dance lightly and joyously; slow movements are reflective and poignant without being self-indulgent or histrionic. I can listen to this recording over and over and hear something new each time.

In addition, the sound is, to my ears, first-rate in this recording--close but with sufficient air around the notes, without that mushy reverberation that characterizes some others. The sound of the instrument is very beautiful, much more so than Rostropovich's.

And, of course, the price of this fabulous set is absurdly low.

With a masterpiece like these Cello Suites, no single performance can reveal everything. (I myself also own Starker's RCA recording, which is much more "romantic" than Schiff's--slower everywhere--and in glorious sound.) But Schiff's is the performance that reveals the most to me."

Intellectually Stimulating

John Hopfensperger | Midland, MI | 05/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These performances by Heinrich Schiff are technically brilliant; they are fast, with perfect intonation and flawless tone augmented by state-of-the-art sound. But they are great because of their intellectual depth.



Schiff phrases the preludes like a keyboardist might, sculpting a musical line where other cellists fuss over single notes. Here and elsewhere, he utilizes subtle rubato in tandem with varied articulations, achieving both clarity and variety. I prefer certain other renditions of some tracks, here and there; but the true beauty of the suites lies in their structure as a whole. The common rhythmic and melodic motives within each suite, as well as the emotional trajectory of all six suites as a cycle, are projected here with a singular focus.



This interpretation demands to be heard."